Interview: Eymard Cabling of MISS SAIGON at Short North Stage

Growing up in Rockville, Md., Eymard Cabling’s fields of study were somewhat limited. Cabling, who will be playing the role of The Engineer in Short North Stage’s upcoming production of the epic MISS SAIGON, thought he had three career choices.

“I was so sheltered that I didn’t even know you could major in (musical theater),” he said with a laugh. “I thought the only thing you could major in was engineering, medicine, or accounting. The family joke is I eventually became an engineer.”

The epic musical, a reimagining of MADAMA BUTTERFLY set during the Vietnam War, runs March 19 through April 19 at the Garden Theater (1187 N. High Street in downtown Columbus).

Playing The Engineer, the lynchpin character in MISS SAIGON, has almost become a career in itself for Cabling. This marks the 12th time the Carnegie Mellon University graduate has been involved in a production of the musical and the fifth time he has played The Engineer. He estimates he has performed in the musical between 3,000 and 4,000 times.

Even after so many curtain calls as the Engineer, Cabling still finds the character “very complex.”

“You can play him as a one-dimensional character, a villain with greed and avarice — but I believe he has more layers than that,” he said. “He may have greed, but it's fueled by something more humanistic, such as survival, the need to succeed and become something better than himself.”

Cabling found his chance to recreate the Engineer in the SNS production through a “series of serendipitous events.” A friend, who had performed with the theatre troupe in the past, texted Cabling that Short North Stage was taking on the production. He immediately sent a publicity photo to the theater.

Shortly afterward, the actor received an Instagram message from Cythia Tomm who had been on a MISS SAIGON tour with Cabling 24 years ago.

“She wrote, ‘I’m here in Columbus and your photo just landed on my desk,’” he recalled. “I wrote back, ‘Are you involved (with it)?’”

Tomm is more than just involved with the production; she is an associate director of the musical with SNS artistic director Edward Carignan and Chari Arespachochaga, the show's co-directors.

Carignan couldn’t believe his good fortune in securing Cabling in the role.

“I would say Eymard is invaluable to this production,” Carignan said. “He has played this role and done this show for so long that it is truly ingrained in him. 

“He has brought such joy and insight to the role and he is so open about his experiences that led him to this truly unique interpretation.”

Cabling puts it simply: MISS SAIGON changed his life.
He first saw the production in 1997 at Benedum Center for the Performing Arts while attending a theater camp at his future alma mater.

“I had no idea what the show was about (going into it), but I can tell you my world was transformed that evening,” Cabling said. “I remember the feelings I had as I sat in the theater and in fact, I can tell you exactly where I sat in the Benedum.

“It was one of the first times I had seen Asians on the stage. When I was in high school, there were only two shows that were popular where a lot of Asians were cast – THE KING AND I and MISS SAIGON. That night my dream to become an actor suddenly came true and I wanted to pursue a job in this industry.”

Cabling went on to play in THE KING AND I as well as star in LARRY THE MUSICAL, a show about Larry Itliong and the Filipino American farmworkers who began the Great Delano Grape Strike in 1965.

MISS SAIGON also holds a special place in Cabling’s career. It was his first professional show, his first national tour and the production in which he earned his union card.

However, Cabling said it’s far more than that. In it, he sees the personal journey of his parents, the late Virgilio and Elvira Cabling, who immigrated from the Philippines to the United States in the 1970s.

“I always think about the sacrifices it takes for family to leave the home they've lived their whole life, and to go to a world that is completely unknown,” he said. “They were willing to start over with almost nothing. That’s a common theme we hear in the immigrant experience — it’s about survival.”

“People should see this iconic show to learn something they didn't know and to be touched by a mother's love for her child.”

Another connection between the production and Cabling’s own life is the character of Kim (Lucy Alo Acuna). Kim is a mother willing to do anything to give her child a better future — much like Cabling’s own parents. It took Cabling years to realize how much they supported his decision to become an actor.

When Cabling was growing up, he was painfully shy but theater helped break him out of his shell.

“I was too scared to talk to anybody, so I locked myself away in the basement of the freshman locker room and I waited until my parents picked me up from school,” he said. “A teacher said I needed to socialize and audition for shows. I had no idea that I would love being on stage.”

His parents recognized his passion for performing but they were hesitant to allow him to pursue it as a professional.

“I’ll say it took many years,” he said with a laugh. “I learned many years after my dad passed that my mom wanted me to become a doctor but my dad told her, ‘We can't force him to do what he doesn't want to do because he might resent us for the rest of his life.’

 “I said to my mom, ‘Why did you tell me that now?’ She was saving these morsels of secrets. It took time, but my mom showed her support in many beautiful ways.”

The late Elvira Cabling often traveled on the national tours of MISS SAIGON and bought “thousands of dollars” of tickets so friends and family could see her son perform.

Cabling still feels his parents’ presence every time he performs.

“It’s my desire to prove (to them) I could do this and it is possible to make a living doing this,” he said. “The biggest challenge I'm trying to overcome is wondering if theater is what I'm meant to do. I deal with that existential question every day.

“Success is entirely in the eyes of the beholder, right? It’s a very interchangeable thing. It changes from day-to-day.”

In the end though, Cabling measures his achievements one show at a time. He still heeds the advice of Mitchell Lemsky, the director of his first MISS SAIGON tour.

 “This may be your 500th show,” he remembers Lemsky saying, “but it’s someone’s first time seeing it. We owe them the due diligence of giving them a fresh show every day. I want to give them the freshest and most vigorous show they've ever seen because I owe it, we owe it, to the audience.”